


Imminent

by autisticaizawashouta



Series: Gender is Hard 'verse [13]
Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Gen, Homophobia, I love her, Please give Fiore a warm welcome, Queer Themes, Suicide mention, Transphobia, mentioned ableism, mild violence, someone gets punched in the face
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 20:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14269416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autisticaizawashouta/pseuds/autisticaizawashouta
Summary: Tensions are running high at Logan and Roman's school. There's a dark storm looming over them.





	Imminent

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so the suicide mention is mentioned in reference to the ableism, just a mention of some character's absolutely horrendous views. It's nothing graphic. The violence isn't graphic, either.  
> The transphobia is pretty blatant, someone gets deadnamed and misgendered.  
> This is the Gender is Hard 'verse, pronouns are as such: Logan, xe/xir, Roman, they/them, Virgil, they/them, Patton, he/him, Elliott, they/them

Logan was early for school. That wasn’t unusual.

What was unusual was the sheer anxiety filling xir at the thought of walking through those doors, into those hallways, when last Friday xe had walked out without permission alongside eighteen other students.

And even bigger things were being planned.

Xe parked xir car and paused to take a deep breath. Count the good things, xir mother had always told xir to do when xe got anxious.

The good things… Virgil and Patton were okay (relatively). Roman was better than okay, although they still hadn’t asked Calisto out. Hollyn and Renee were still talking to xir. Xir aunts and cousin would be visiting for spring break. Xe had just hit the 700 follower milestone on tumblr (somehow).

Xe could face the day, whatever it threw at xir.

Xe left the car and walked towards the school. It was quiet, the early morning air filled with a mild chill. The sun was rising. A rainstorm was predicted to roll in later that afternoon, bringing much-needed water with it.

Xe took a deep breath and entered the school.

Roman, Christine, Katy, Elliott, and Elliott’s half-brothers Reilly and Ethan were already there, hanging out in the area between the office and the library.

“Logan!” Roman said, springing to their feet and striding over.

“Hi, Roman,” Logan said, accepting Roman’s enthusiastic hug and, after a pause, patting them on the back.

“They have been beyond stoked about events,” Elliott said.

Katy laughed. “Stoked,” she said, pointing at Elliott, who frowned at her. “What? It’s funny. Your last name is Stokes and… Okay.” She quit talking and shrugged.

“Some people just don’t appreciate fine humor,” Christine said. “I thought it was hilarious.”

“Har-dee-har-har,” Elliott replied, rolling their eyes.

“I mean, they’re completely right about me being beyond stoked! We could be making history! Right here! In the middle-of-nowhere, Oregon!” Roman let go of Logan with a flourish.

“Roman,” Logan said, rolling xir eyes. “We are not the middle of nowhere. _Wagontire_ is the middle of nowhere. _Brothers_ is the middle of nowhere. We? Are not.”

“Brothers is the middle of nowhere,” Katy said, pointing at Reilly and Ethan.

Christine fell off the bench, she was laughing so hard.

“That was actually really validating,” Reilly said, once the group caught their breath. “Thanks.”

“No problem!” Katy replied, tucking a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “Bad jokes that validate are my specialty!”

“Well _anyways_ ,” Roman said, “we could be making history! Right here! Us! History!”

Christine nodded. “I gotta admit, that is a pretty heady thought.” She kicked a heel back, her boot thumping against the wall.

Gradually, the school filled with arriving students. Various performing arts kids greeted Roman, Christine, Reilly, Elliott, and Ethan, and they even occasionally said hello to Logan, given how xe had taken to eating lunch in the performing arts kids’ ‘section’ of the cafeteria.

Renee was the first of Logan’s two new friends to arrive, walking into the school with her hair in electric blue box braids.

“I love your hair!” Christine exclaimed as Renee walked over. Renee blushed and smiled.

“Thanks!” she replied, coming to a stop next to Logan. “Are you nervous? I’m nervous.”

Xe took a deep breath. “I believe nervous would be an accurate way to describe my current emotional state, yes.”

“I’m, like, nervous- _excited_ though,” Renee amended. “This is so cool, y’know? We’re doing something! We’re taking action!”

“Taking action? _Do tell_.”

The entire group whipped around to see Michael the business kid standing there, arms across his chest and self-superior pout on his lips. Several of his friends stood behind him.

Christine rose to her feet. At 6 foot 3 before boots, she towered over them. Katy and Roman also placed themselves between Michael and the rest of their friends.

Logan hung back with Renee.

“Why are you interested?” Christine snarled. “Aren’t you all for licking the boots of any authority figure you find?”

“First, that’s disgusting,” Michael said, counting on his fingers, “and second, someone’s gotta keep you queers from completely disrupting everything.”

“Oh, wow,” Logan sneered, derision dripping off xir voice. “You figured out that we’re queer. Congratulations, your parents must be so proud of your intelligence for figuring out the openly queer kids are queer.”

“Oh, quit acting like it’s something to be proud of,” Michael snapped, rolling his eyes.

“It’s unnatural,” Kara agreed.

“Oh my god,” Christine groaned, throwing her head back. “Are you, are you really doing this?”

“You were talking about taking action? Well, someone has to stand up and take action against you infecting society with your cancerous beliefs,” one of Michael’s friends, Will, said, taking a step forward while pointing at them.

“Oh, boy, I’ve never heard that one before,” Katy said, her voice flat and face expressionless.

“Reilly, go get dad,” Elliott said, nudging Reilly’s shoulder. Reilly hurried off, knuckles white where his fingers were clenched in the fabric of his flannel shirt.

“You think that we’re infecting society?” Roman asked, a hand on their chest. “You’re the ones infecting society with your hatred and intolerance.”

“Hatred? Intolerance?” Kara asked. “All we’re doing is pointing out a problem and trying to fix it.”

“We’re not a problem and we don’t need fixed,” Christine replied.

“Oh, puh- _lease_ , you are the problem. Trying to call yourself a girl so you can get in our locker rooms and creep on us? Stop playing dress-up, _Gerardo_ , and stop trying to call yourself a woman,” Kara snapped.

Christine drew back, a snarl on her lips. “What did you just call me?” she growled. If you could see fire in someone’s eyes, you would see a wildfire in hers.

“Your _name_?” Kara replied. “Uh, duh?”

“That is so not cool,” Katy said, stepping between Christine and Kara. “Apologize to her.”

“I’m not going to apologize to him,” Kara replied, a sneer on her pink-glossed lips. “If you think he deserves-”

A fist smashed into Kara’s face. Kara shouted out and fell to the floor. The group of teenagers stumbled backwards, looking at Kara’s attacker.

“What are you saying about her?” an Italian-accented voice shouted. “Are you really trying to call her a man?” A girl with long black hair pulled into a high ponytail wearing a jean jacket stood over Kara, her hands in fists. “Because that is so not cool!”

Several administrators left the office.

“What is going on out here?” Mr. Wilkinson, the vice principal, bellowed.

“She was being a transphobic jerkface!” the girl shouted, pointing Kara.

“She hit me!” Kara replied, pointing at the Italian girl.

“Well maybe you should consider not being a bigoted butthead!” the Italian girl snapped back.

“Fiore, hitting people isn’t okay,” Mr. Wilkinson said, his best disappointed face on.

“Being a transphobic asshat isn’t okay!” Fiore fired back.

“Kara was being really verbally abusive,” someone spoke up. Logan recognized her from xir math class: Alanna.

“That doesn’t make it okay to hit someone,” Mr. Wilkinson replied.

“I don’t know, defending someone from abuse seems like a good reason to hit someone to me,” Roman spoke up.

“Okay, all three of you, to my office, now,” Mr. Wilkinson said, pointing at Kara, Fiore, and Roman.

“What? Why me?” Roman exclaimed, looking around at the group. Logan could see Reilly and his dad approaching from the direction of his dad’s classroom.

“You said something that gives me reason to believe you may attack someone in the future,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “I need to notify your parents.”

“As if they’ll care,” Christine muttered.

Roman sighed. “Fine.”

Mr. Wilkinson ushered the three teenagers into the office. Katy watched them leave with wide eyes.

“I’m gay,” she murmured.

“Oh, boy, Katy has a crush on the exchange student,” Christine said. Kara’s friends had retreated, throwing venomous glares over their shoulders.

“Hey, don’t let Kara get to you,” Renee said, putting a hand on Christine’s shoulder and looking up at the older girl.

“I was about ready to punch her, too,” Ethan agreed.

“What happened?” Mr. O’Mara, Reilly and Ethan’s dad and Elliott’s step-dad, asked.

“The Italian exchange student punched Kara for being a giant jerk to Christine and now Katy has a crush on her,” Ethan said. Katy blushed.

Mr. O’Mara paused for a moment to process the chunk of information. “Well then. Why did Roman get taken into the office?”

“He said that he thought protecting someone from abuse was a good reason for hitting someone and so apparently Mr. Wilkinson is worried about them attacking someone now,” Ethan said.

“What,” Mr. O’Mara exclaimed, shaking his head. “Roman? Attack someone? I could see them defending themself from someone, but just attacking someone?"

"I know!" Christine agreed. "It's BS!"

"And you all do know that as long as my door is open, you can come hang out in my classroom, right?" Mr. O'Mara added. The group of students blushed and looked anywhere but at him. "Seriously."

"We'll... keep that in mind," Christine replied.

"Tensions are increasing," Logan interjected. "We might do well to actually take him up on the offer this time."

The group started following Mr. O'Mara back to his classroom. Hollyn walked into the school, and Renee beckoned her over.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Someone was being a transphobic jerk to Christine," Renee replied, gesturing towards the Christine in question.

"Oh, that's not cool," Hollyn said, frowning. "Are they at least getting in trouble for it?"

"Probably not, since the Italian exchange student came out of nowhere and just... decked her," Renee replied.

"Decked Christine?" Hollyn asked, frowning.

"Oh, no, the transphobe," Renee replied, laughing and blushing. "It was Kara, computer class Kara, you know."

"Ooooh," Hollyn said. "Yeah. Her. Well, I can't say I like that someone got hit but I can say that she definitely deserved it. She says the worst things about mentally ill people, as if the entire school doesn't know about mine. She says the people who attempt suicide deserve to succeed, did you know that?"

"Like, succeed at killing themselves?" Renee asked, a grimace on her face. Hollyn nodded.

"That's messed up," Reilly chimed in.

That morning, Logan had been nervous about going to school due to their planned protest actions. Now? Xe was more nervous about the repercussions than xe already had been.

The plans were to not attend Mr. Travis's (and after some discussions, Mr. Bannock's) classes. At all. What sort of things were the administrators going to do once they caught on to what was going on? Logan already had a week of after-school detention (xir parents had contested it and lost).

"Okay, well, all of you seem a little tense," Mr. O'Mara said once they reached his classroom. "Understandable, given what I have come to understand of events both recent and planned." Several of the students let out nervous laughs.

"Just a little," Katy agreed.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck," he replied. "Break a leg, as it were."

"Thanks, Drama Dad," Christine replied, smiling at him. He shrugged.

"No problem. Be your best you, today and always."

 

Logan went to xir first period class, Advanced Chemistry, with those thoughts ringing in xir head. What was the rest of the day going to hold?

How were they going to be punished?

**Author's Note:**

> y'know when i started this installment, i wasn't planning on anyone getting punched, i promise. but, i mean, she did deserve it.  
> anyways, i hope you enjoyed! if you did, leave a kudos, and if you'd like to, leave me a comment letting me know what you thought! i love to hear from my readers (and talk to them, seriously, i'll chat)  
> with love,  
> Kestrel  
> (ps there's an ask blog for this au: @gender-is-hard-asks, you can ask any of the main four questions, and if there's interest, i'll make it so you can ask ocs questions too)  
> (pss i have over 100k words posted on ao3 WHOOOOO)


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